Jonathan Franzen's in the news again, this time talking about how e-books are chiseling away at the foundations of civilization as we know it. Absurd, isn't it? That the author of two of the better regarded novels of the past decade (give or take) would be concerned about how you read his books. The problem, according to Franzen, is manifold.

This is a different kind of travel memoir; those hints of European debauchery we hear murmured in print and film are to be found in these pages…the Medieval Beatrice, the isle of Capri, Lord Byron, Casanova, chastity belts, the less savory aspects of the Inquisition…… THE SINNER’S GRAND TOUR is not for every reader! But for those who are intrigued by “a journey through the “underbelly of Europe”, the book’s subtitle, author Tony Perrottet’s book is worth reading.

Facebook's Timeline — the long-anticipated overhaul of the site — is rolling out across the world this week.

Timeline allows friends to surf through all your posts going back to the beginning of Facbeook time. Graphically it can be a beautiful thing. Mark Zuckerberg calls it a chance for users to tell the stories of their lives. And over the next few weeks, users across the world will get it on their profile.

Engineers from Facebook, Twitter and other social media firms have launched an app that allows social searching on Google to become truly social. And they are calling it Don't Be Evil, a play on Google's fabled motto.

Two hundred years ago wide swaths of the now US upper Midwest and southern Canada were engaged in open warfare; from the burning of our young national capital, Washington DC to the climactic battle of old and new on the bluffs of the Wabash we now call Battle Ground, the War of 1812 ravaged our young nation. Yet 200 years hence we hardly acknowledge this war’s crucial changes to the United States of America. Today’s book, The War of 1812, sets out to bring the War and its heroes, its victims, and its importance to our attention.